Medieval News - Portuguese exploration, nanotechnology, and Carcassonne

Historian's approach turns discovery of Asia on head at Tufts U.
14 November 2006
By Giovanni Russonello, Tufts Daily (Tufts U.)

MEDFORD, Mass. -- Eminent historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam presented an innovative approach to Portugal's exploration of Asia during an afternoon speech at the Tufts University Fletcher School yesterday.

The speech, titled "When the World Discovered Portugal: Ten Years of Luso-Asian Interaction, 1498-1508," was part of Tufts' Pearson Prentice Hall Seminar Series in Global History.

Subrahmanyam, chairman of Indian history at the University of California at Los Angeles, delivered his hour-long speech to an intimate crowd of about 20 professors and graduate students seated in armchairs around a wooden table in Goddard Hall's Edward R. Murrow Room.

Subrahmanyam's speech sought to examine Portugal's early maritime exploration of Asia through eyes other than those of the Portuguese explorers who provided most of the primary documentation on this subject.

During the era on which Subrahmanyam focused, many European countries were seeking Asian spices, but no common avenue of travel into Asia had yet been discovered.

"It all comes down to the [trade of] pepper, because the Spice Route was not discovered until after the period of time we are dealing with," Subrahmanyam said.

Subrahmanyam spoke of international rivalries within Europe and within Asia during that period, in addition to those between European and Asian civilizations.

Of the Portuguese, Subrahmanyam said, "their main rivals were the Venetians." At the same time, however, Portugal was engaged in a war with the Mamluks of Egypt.

"There's an enormous amount of instability, the situation is incredibly disturbed," he said.

Tufts Professor of history Felipe Fernandez-Armesto organized the seminar series of which this speech was a part. The series is "part of the new dynamism of exciting initiatives that Tufts is launching in exploiting the genius of its history department which is globalism," Fernandez-Armesto said. "We're launching a global history Ph.D. program which is going to be the most attractive and promising in the country and therefore the world."

Subrahmanyam is "one of the most complex, diverse historians," according to audience member Mana Kia, a Harvard graduate student; still, the atmosphere was familiar and relaxed despite the speech's sophisticated nature, as audience members freely interjected with contributions or questions.

"Getting here from Harvard is a trek, but it's worth it," Kia said. "[Tufts'] global history lecture [series is] superior in many ways to what is available even at Harvard and MIT."

After Subrahmanyam finished his speech, he answered questions from audience members for over an hour. The friendly atmosphere, promoted by the high ratio of professors to students, led to a stimulating back-and-forth during the question section.

Boston College professor David Northrup introduced Subrahmanyam by saying, "I am afraid his reputation precedes him."

Subrahmanyam is the author of numerous history books, Joint Managing Editor of the Indian Economic and Social History Review, and former chairman in Indian history and culture at the University of Oxford in England.


Roll the dice and try your luck on Arab history through the ages; Locally produced board game brings the region's past to life in imaginative new ways
Iman Azzi
8 September 2006
Daily Star

BEIRUT: What is the name of the main temple at Baalbek? How many Mongol invasions did the Mamluks fend off? When did Kuwait gain its independence? No, these questions are not the start of a history lesson. Rather, they are part of a new board game launched in Lebanon this summer, where players compete to earn "points of knowledge" and show off their understanding of Arab history.

Rahala, an Arabic word that means "explorers" in English, is a game that is playable in both languages. It had its official launch in Beirut on July 11, 2006, but as an exercise in documenting over 4,000 years of Arab wars and achievements, it was duly overshadowed by the Middle East's most recent war, which broke out the next day.

Rahala's creator, Reem Askalan, first realized the need to compile Arab history for the masses while she was pursuing a graduate degree in Islamic studies at New York University.

"If you wanted to know anything about Arab history you had to go to an academic source," she says. "I was looking for a medium that would simplify the information and make people interested in learning."

Askalan considered creating an "Arab History for Dummy's" and other book projects before returning to school, this time to the Massachusetts Institute for Technology for urban planning.

"The idea remained brewing in my mind until I met Jawdat Kazoun in 2000, who was

a game player and he introduced me to games I hadn't played since I was nine. Suddenly it clicked: Why not do a board game?"

Kazoun came on board as the game's designer and, in 2002, Askalan devoted her time to making Rahala a reality.

The game itself, intended for ages 15 and up, may be a mystery at first and prospective players should make sure they read, and reread, the instructions before they begin to play. The board is a flowery hexagon-shaped labyrinth guiding the players between six eras of Arab history.

Like Trivial Pursuit, the aim of Rahala is to travel between topics, correctly answering questions to earn "points of knowledge" as you pass. Unlike Trivial Pursuit, and most other board games, the goal is not to complete the game the fastest but to collect the most points by the end of the game.

Some 4,000 years of history are divided into six decks of question cards. The yellow deck represents the "Ancient Civilizations Era" (20th century BC-fourth century BC), starting with the spread of writing until the death of Alexander the Great, covering the Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Phoenician and Canaanite civilizations.

The orange cards follow the Hellenic period and the Byzantine Empire, focusing on the rise and spread of Christianity through to and including Byzantium.

Questions on "The Rise of Islam" (fifth century AD-eighth century AD) are symbolized by the green cards and proceed until the fall of the Umayyad Dynasty, covering the Islamic conquests and the spread of Islam and Arab societies.

"The Age of Discovery" (eighth century AD-12th century AD), the blue deck, covers scientific discoveries and inventions and innovations in art, architecture, music, literature and philosophy.

The Mamluk and Ottoman eras (12th century AD-19th century AD) follow with the red deck, asking questions about non-Arab dynasties that came to rule the Arab-Muslim world, including the Crusades and the wars against the Mongols.

The last deck of cards is black and poses questions about modern times (19th century AD-20th century AD) after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the oil boom and the rise of modern Arab states.

All 360 trivia cards, most of which contain two multiple choice questions, were written by Askalan, who read hundreds of books in both English and Arabic to fill out the cards, which were then checked over by university professors. The questions are well-researched, fascinating and bound to provoke hours of fun.

"No one wants to play with me any more," Askalan says, admitting that she now knows the answers to all the cards. For those who dare to compete with the creator, she is not given the multiple choice options.

There is a seventh deck of card called "Open Questions." When players land on the open-question space they are given one minute to answer a question that has no right answer.

"When does freedom fighting end and terrorism begin?" one card asks. Another poses the question: "Is history true?" Players earn 10 points just for speaking with the option of obtaining another 10 points if the other players decide the argument was well-presented.

"Open questions are a way to give players a break from academic questions. Each player has a different opinion so let them express it," explains Askalan.

For some, the $56 price tag may seem shocking but this is not an ordinary board game. The price is cheap if one considers that a textbook containing an equal amount of information would cost well over $100, and be far less exciting.

Askalan chose to market Rahala through Lebanese bookstores - such as the Virgin Megastore, CD-Theque and Librarie Antoine - rather than placing the product in toy stores.

"Games are linked to kids. Arab culture does not exercise game playing and so to put this game in a toy shop where mothers go looking for children's toys would not be fair to the game."

Although currently only available in Lebanon, the game can be purchased elsewhere through Rahala's Web site, www.rahala.net . Askalan believes the game could also become a favorite among Arab expatriates or Westerners interested in Arab or Islamic history.

"Arabs living in the West are more used to a culture of games," Askalan offers as one possible reason why expatriates might be intrigued by her product. Nostalgia is another.

Well presented and well documented, although a bit overwhelming at first, Rahala may become a new key to unlock the Arab world's past for the next generation of thinkers.

ANCIENT SABRES REVEAL USE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
15 November 2006
Press Association National Newswire

Deadly sabres used against Christian knights in the crusades employed a medieval version of nanotechnology, scientists have learned.

The Damascus blades wielded by Muslim fighters were renowned for their exceptional strength, sharp cutting edge, and beautiful banding pattern.

It is believed they were forged from small cakes of steel known as 'wootz'' produced in ancient India.

A sophisticated treatment was then applied to the steel, but the secrets of the technique were lost in the 18th century. European craftsmen were unable to replicate the process.

How medieval blacksmiths overcame the inherent brittleness of the material to create such a perfect finished product has remained a mystery to this day.

Now scientists are starting to uncover the secrets of the Damascus sabre, and the results are surprising.

An investigation of the microstructure of one 17th-century blade revealed evidence of carbon nanotubes - tiny cylinders of carbon with special properties.

Today, carbon nanotubes are at the cutting edge of nanotechnology, the science of materials at very small scales that promises to change the way we live.

Remnants of iron carbide 'nanowires'' were also found. These microscopically-thin strands of extremely hard material may have been contained within the carbon nanotubes, and would have given the weapon its unusual strength and banding pattern.

'By empirically optimising their blade-treatment procedure, craftsmen ended up making nanotubes more than 400 years ago,'' the researchers, led by Dr Peter Paufler, from the University of Technology in Dresden, Germany, reported in the journal Nature.

They believe further study of the sabre's structure might make it possible to reproduce the long-forgotten recipe for Damascus steel.


Old French town inspired 'Labyrinth' author Mosse
Kyoko Nakajima / Special to The Daily Yomiuri
30 September 2006
Daily Yomiuri

Carcassonne, a fortified city dating back to the Roman era in southern France, played a key role in the history of a Christian sect called the Cathars, who feature prominently in the popular novel Labyrinth.

Visiting Japan to help launch the two-volume Rabirinsu, the Japanese edition of Labyrinth (Softbank Creative), British author Kate Mosse revealed in an interview with The Daily Yomiuri how this novel was born out of her fascination with Carcassone.

But first, what's a Cathar? According to The Encyclopedia Britannica, they believed matter was evil and spirit was good. Their renunciation of the material world included a meatless diet and sexual abstinence. The Cathars also rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, which labeled them heretics.

This led to the suppression of the Cathars, beginning with the Albigensian Crusades in the early 13th century, during which Carcassone fell. Mosse writes in her book that this was the first crusade held "against Christians and on European soil. The persecution of the Cathars led directly to the founding of the Inquisition."

According to legend, the Cathars could have been the protectors of the Holy Grail, the vessel from which Christ drank at the Last Supper. Through the ages, the relic has featured in stories, poems, operas and, most recently, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.

Mosse's historical mystery weaves together Grail lore and the destinies of two heroines with ties to Carcassone. A British woman, Alice, uncovers two skeletons while volunteering at an archaeological dig near Carcassonne in the present day. The other heroine, Alais, lived in the area 800 years earlier and was entrusted with a book and a stone ring engraved with a labyrinth by her father, a steward for the lord of Carcassonne, in 1209 to protect the secret of the Holy Grail.

"Authors are inspired by different things. Some authors or novelists are inspired by ideas, some by characters and some by places. The spirit of the place is very, very important to me as a person and also as a writer," Mosse said.

Mosse lives part of the year in Carcassonne, absorbing its history and researching the Cathars' tragic experiences.

"From the very first time I was there, I fell completely in love with it," she said.

"From my bedroom in Carcassonne, where I wrote some of [my] books, I look up out of the windows across vines, tomato plants, eggplants, and I can see the towers and the turrets," she said.

"Every time I feel writing is difficult, all I need to do is to look out of my window," she said, finding the landscape and its history to be reliably inspiring.

Mosse's career is also inspiring. In addition to her own writing, she hosts programs on books and culture for the BBC, and is a cofounder of the high-profile Orange Prize for female authors.

Labyrinth is her fifth book, but with it, Mosse says: "I feel that for the first time I discovered my voice as a writer. I was always thinking too much about what sorts of books I was writing, instead of letting the book tell you, I was imposing my will on the book."

"I started [writing Labyrinth] because I was inspired by the history as well as the landscape of southern France, and once I had let the landscape talk to me, the characters talked to me, the book itself started to tell its own story," she said.

The catalyst was a visit 10 years ago to Mt. Monsegur in the Pyrenees, where the brutal crusade against the Cathars finished in 1244, Mosse explained. When she stood alone in the cold and silence at the summit, something came to her. "I imagined a woman standing [on that spot] at cold dawn, wearing a white cloak. I wondered how she felt, knowing that she was about to go down to her death. That's the woman who became Alais."

She said we are apt to know the history of kings, emperors and battles, usually told by those who emerge victorious, but she is more interested in writing about the experiences of ordinary people, particularly women.

The book has sold 1 million copies in Britain since its publication in July last year and has been published in 40 countries in 37 languages. The 544-page book packed with historical details rewards readers who give it a patient and careful reading.

Asked why so many people enjoyed reading it, Mosse said she doesn't really know, but she thinks as a reader that you can read it in many different ways and on many different levels.

"Labyrinth is an epic story. There are some stories about big themes, about love, about bravery, about loyalty and about preserving a secret, that are more important than time, place and context. I think people from all over the world understand we share the same emotions. It doesn't matter what nationality we are, whether a man or a woman, we all understand happiness, love and sadness, loyalty to your family and to your friends. I think this might be why Labyrinth has been enjoyed by people in 37 different languages."

Mosse said her next novel, which is half finished, is about classical music, adding that she once studied to be a violinist and has written a nonfiction book on Britain's Royal Opera and Royal Ballet.